STANDARDIZING 


RELIGIOUS 

EDUCATION 

AS  A 

NEW  PROFESSION 


A  STATEMENT  of  the  ACADEMIC 
STANDARDS  of  BOSTON  UNIVERSITY 
SCHOOL  of  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 
and  SOCIAL  SERVICE 


♦ 


* 


Religious  Education  Is  a 
]S[ew  "Profession 

Four  factors  are  involved  in  every  profession; 
viz.:  (i)  a  definite  and  permanent  human  need; 
(i)  a  well  defined  body  of  knowledge  appertain¬ 
ing  to  the  permanent  human  need;  (3)  tools, 
instruments  or  specialised  technique  by  which 
bodies  of  knowledge  are  applied  to  perma¬ 
nent  human  needs;  and  (4 f  skill  in  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  technique  to  special  knowledge. 

Few  would  deny  that  religious  education  is 
a  vital  and  permanent  human  need.  Theology, 
philosophy,  metaphysics,  psychology,  his¬ 
tory  of  religion,  ethics,  sociology  and  the 
biological  sciences  have  already  contributed 
bodies  of  knowledge  essential  to  religious 
education.  During  the  past  two  decades  there 
has  developed  a  well  defined  body  of  knowl¬ 
edge  regarding  the  development  of  religion  in 
children  and  adults,  and  of  pedagogical 
methods  of  teaching  religion.  A  very  de¬ 
finite  technique  is  being  formulated;  scales, 
score-cards  and  standards  of  measurement 
have  been  created  and  standardized  for  the 
purpose  of  measuring  the  factors  involved  in 
religious  education  and  the  processes  of  re¬ 
ligious  growth.  Already  literally  thousands 
of  persons  are  employed  as  experts  in  the 
application  of  this  specialized  knowledge  to 
the  spiritual  needs  of  human  beings.  Almost 
without  our  knowing  it,  a  new  profession, 
equipped  with  all  the  elements  necessary  for 
professional  service,  has  sprung,  Minerva- 
like,  into  existence. 

The  new  profession  is  here.  The  question  is: 
shall  the  graduate  schools  of  the  land  stand¬ 
ardize  this  new  profession  and  make  its 
practice  safe  and  trustworthy? 


* 


+ - -  - . . 

Shall  the  l\[ew  Profession  Have  Its 
Own  "Professional  T)egrees? 

New  professional  degrees  arise  with  the  de¬ 
velopment  and  standardization  of  new  pro¬ 
fessions.  Shall  the  new  profession  of  religious 
education  have  its  own  professional  degrees? 

The  history  of  the  older  professions  indicates 
clearly  that  academic  standardization  was  an 
essential  element  in  the  development  of  pro¬ 
fessional  standards.  What  medical  colleges 
have  done  for  the  medical  profession  colleges 
of  religious  education  must  do  for  the  pro¬ 
fession  of  religious  education.  It  should  be 
made  clear  to  all  friends  of  this  new  profes¬ 
sion  that  religious  education  is  neither  a  mere 
adjunct  of  a  theological  course,  nor  a  voca¬ 
tional  emphasis  which  can  be  secured  sur¬ 
reptitiously  during  a  candidacy  for  the  M.A. 
or  the  Ph.D.  degrees. 

One  of  the  ways  by  which  established 
academic  degrees  maintain  their  prestige  is  to 
discredit  all  newcomers  who  enter  the 
academic  family.  Every  new  degree  has  to 
endure  the  sneers  and  haughty,  superior  de¬ 
meanor  of  its  otherwise  well-bred  academic 
neighbors.  Timid  souls,  shrinking  from  the 
withering  scorn  and  criticism  of  older  dis¬ 
ciplines,  often  seek  to  achieve  well  merited 
recognition  for  new  disciplines  by  securing 
modifications  of  the  requirements  for  the 
older  degrees.  It  then  comes  about  that  the 
same  academic  gown  covers  a  multitude  of 
divergent  and  heterogeneous  disciplines. 

Friends  of  religious  education  have,  in 
many  cases,  feared  to  make  the  fight  for  the 
recognition  of  their  profession  as  a  new  pro¬ 
fession  worthy  of  special  recognition  and 
designation,  and  they  have  joined  with  others 
in  an  attempt  to  secure  such  a  modification  in 
the  requirements  for  the  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  de¬ 
grees  as  will  meet  the  vocational  require¬ 
ments  of  this  new  profession.  In  some  cases 
the  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  degrees  are  being  modi¬ 
fied  to  meet  new  vocational  needs;  in  others 
the  special  needs  of  a  new  profession  are  being 
sacrificed  on  the  academic  altar  of  a  non¬ 
professional  degree. 


■  • - - - -+ 

Boston  University  School  of  Religious 
Education  and  Social  Service  is  a  professional 
school  in  which  men  and  women  may  be 
trained  to  practice  this  new  profession  with 
the  same  mastery  of  facts,  conditions,  pro¬ 
cesses  and  materials  as  men  and  women 
practice  engineering,  medicine,  law,  the¬ 
ology,  or  education. 

The  faculty  of  Boston  University  School  of 
Religious  Education  and  Social  Service  be¬ 
lieves:  (i)  that  professional  interests  can  not 
be  adequately  expressed  through  the  use  of 
the  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  degrees;  (2.)  that  the 
M.A.  and  Ph.D.  degrees  have  a  distinct  place 
as  cultural  and  research  degrees  of  a  non¬ 
professional  character,  and  that,  as  such,  they 
will  be  useful  to  the  field  of  religious  educa¬ 
tion;  (3)  that  the  field  of  religious  education 
should  be  recognized  as  a  major  profession, 
essential  to  the  moral  integrity  of  democracy 
and  the  perpetuity  of  the  Church;  (4)  that  its 
practice  involves  a  technique  too  highly 
specialized  to  be  properly  included  within 
the  limitations  of  the  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  de¬ 
grees,  and  that  this  new  profession  should 
establish  for  its  own  use  new  professional  de¬ 
grees  comparable  to  the  B.D.,  S.T.B.,  S.T.D., 
and  Th.D.  degrees  of  theology;  and  the  M.D. 
of  medicine. 

It  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to  abandon 
the  M.D.  degree  for  doctors  of  medicine  and 
limit  the  medical  profession  to  the  specializa¬ 
tion  possible  within  the  limits  of  the  M.A. 
and  Ph.D.  degrees  as  it  is  to  ask  the  practi¬ 
tioner  of  religious  education  to  limit  the 
amount  and  character  of  his  specialization  to 
the  requirements  of  a  degree  which  has  an  en¬ 
tirely  different  content  and  objective. 

The  faculty  of  this  professional  school  be¬ 
lieves  that  the  resources  of  the  School  and  the 
volume  of  specialized  knowledge  and  tech¬ 
nique  have  developed  to  a  point  which 
justifies  the  granting  of  the  following 
graduate  professional  degrees: 

Master  of  Religious  Education,  (M.R.E.),  three  years 
beyond  college  graduation. 

Master  of  Social  Service,  (M.S.Sc.),  three  years  beyond 
college  graduation. 

Doctor  of  Religious  Education,  (D.R.E.),  five  years 
beyond  college  graduation. 


❖ - ♦ 

The  following  diagram  will  show  the  re¬ 
lation  of  the  professional  degrees  in  religious 
education  to  other  academic  and  professional 
degrees : 


(2  YRS) 

Doctor  of 

R/ELIGIOUS 

Education 

(2  YRS) 

Doctor  of 
Systematic 
Theology 

(4- YRS.) 

Doctor. 

or 

Medicine 

(2  YRS) 
Doctor,  or 
Philosophy 

(3  YRS) 

Master  or 
Religious 
Education 

(3  YRS) 
Bachelor  of 
Divinity  or 
Systematic 
Theology 

(3  YRS) 

Doctor. 

or 

Education 

Faster,  of  Arts 

4  YEAR. 

College 

Course 

A-B'B.S 

4YEAR 

High 

School 

This  diagram  shows  that  the  standard 
graduate  cultural  and  professional  degrees 
rest  upon  a  common  basis  of  eight  years  of 
accredited  high  school  and  college  work.  It 
also  shows  that  Boston  University  has  placed 
its  professional  degrees  in  religious  education 
on  as  high  a  plane  as  that  of  any  of  the  older 
professions. 

Requirements  for  Professional  "Degrees 

An  examination  of  the  requirements  of  these 
professional  degrees  will  show  that  they  pre¬ 
serve  the  essential  disciplines  of  the  cultural 
degrees  and  add  in  proper  sequence  courses  de¬ 
signed  to  give  the  bodies  of  vocational  in¬ 
formation,  specialized  technique,  and  prac¬ 
tical  skill  required  of  a  successful  practitioner. 

(See  pp  56-69  of  current  catalogue  of  Boston 
University  School  of  Religious  Education 
and  Social  Service.) 

Students  coming  into  these  professional 
graduate  courses  will  have  the  equivalent  of 
a  Liberal  Arts  college  training;  they  will  have 
mastered  “the  common  elements  necessary  to 
an  intelligent  participation  in  a  democratic 
society’’  and  they  may  also  have  pursued  cer¬ 
tain  prevocational  courses  which  will  intro¬ 
duce  them  to  the  more  highly  specialized 
graduate  courses. 

Building  upon  this  background  of  culture 
and  vocational  training  the  professional 
graduate  school  should: 

1.  Give  further  training  in  methods  of  study  and  in  the 

technique  of  handling  “second  hand"  knowledge. 

♦ - - - — - i 


i.  Introduce  the  student  to  the  methods  of  research  and 
give  practice  in  organizing  and  interpreting  “first¬ 
hand”  knowledge,  including  laboratory,  statistical 
and  historical  methods  of  research. 

3.  Give  background,  perspective  and  point  of  view  for 
professional  courses.  In  building  this  background,  it 
will  be  kept  in  mind  that  all  religious  and  social 
workers  must  have  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  an 
insight  into  the  nature  of  society,  knowledge  of  the 
history,  philosophy  and  psychology  of  religion,  and 
knowledge  of  the  church  as  an  institution,  including 
its  history,  agencies  and  materials. 

4.  Give  a  comprehensive  acquaintance  with  the  matter 
and  method  of  specific  vocations;  i.e.,  vocational 
information. 

5.  Develop  skill  in  the  application  of  vocational  knowl¬ 
edge  to  specific  cases;  i.e.,  practitioner' s  skill. 


Laboratories ,  Clinics  and  Supervised 
LracHce  Wor\ 

The  very  genius  of  this  school  made  necessary 
the  development  of  social  and  educational 
laboratories  and  the  creation  of  a  system  of 
supervision  in  order  that  the  theories  of  the 
class  room  might  be  exemplified  in  the 
laboratory.  A  clear  distinction  is  made  be¬ 
tween  practical  work  which  is  carried  on 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  a  class¬ 
room  lecture,  and  practical  work  which  is  de¬ 
signed  to  develop  the  pupil  into  a  skilled 
practitioner.  Distinction  is  also  made  be¬ 
tween  a.  practice  school  where  students  gain 
skill,  and  a  demonstration  school  in  which 
the  entire  process  is  controlled  in  the  interest 
of  certain  educational  tests,  or  experiments 
which  are  being  carried  out,  not  by  ap¬ 
prentices,  but  by  highly  skilled  operators. 

Just  as  a  medical  college  must  have  its 
clinic  and  its  laboratories;  just  as  an  agricul¬ 
tural  college  must  have  its  experimental 
station  and  its  model  farm,  so  this  school 
must  have  a  system  of  social  and  educational 
laboratories.  The  development  and  adminis¬ 
tration  of  such  a  system  of  laboratories  and 
demonstration  centers  has  been  a  major  in¬ 
terest  of  the  faculty  of  this  school  from  the 
beginning.  Working  rules  have  been  de¬ 
veloped  and  a  system  of  academic  credit  has 
been  formulated.  Laboratory  manuals  are  in 
process  of  construction,  and  the  technique  of 
supervision  is  being  standardized. 


Tfange  of  Vocational  Interest 

The  range  of  vocational  interest  contemplated 
by  this  school  is  as  wide  as  the  needs  and 
activities  of  the  local  church.  Whatever  types 
of  lay-service  the  church  or  the  community 
may  demand,  those  types  will  be  supplied 
by  this  school. 

The  present  curriculum  and  faculty  provide 
for  specialization  in  the  Administration  of 
Religious  Education,  Young  People’s  Work, 
Children’s  Work,  College  and  High  School 
Teaching,  The  Fine  Arts  in  Religion,  Rural 
and  Village  Church,  Town  and  City  Church, 
Foreign-Speaking  Work,  Foreign  Missions, 
and  Social  Engineering.  It  will  be  the  purpose 
of  this  school  to  respond  to  the  needs  of  the 
church  just  as  an  engineering  school  responds 
to  the  needs  of  the  country’s  industries,  or 
agricultural  colleges  to  the  needs  of  the 
farmers. 

Professional  ^Atmosphere 

Graduate  students  in  this  school  breathe 
the  atmosphere  of  the  profession  to  whose 
practice  they  are  to  devote  their  lives. 

Dr.  A.  Lawrence  Lowell,  president  of 
Harvard  University,  in  a  recent  address,  said: 

“For  the  success  of  a  school  founded  to  pre¬ 
pare  for  a  new  profession  two  things  are 
required: 

“First  —  That  the  men  practising  that  oc¬ 
cupation  should  be  convinced  that  they  are 
members  of  a  profession,  with  a  sense  of 
solidarity,  of  common  interests  and  aims, 
with  a  motive  above  personal  profit,  and  a  de¬ 
sire  to  promote  the  best  preparation  therefor. 

“Secondly  —  That  the  school  itself  should 
have  a  distinct  professional  atmosphere  of  its 
own,  so  strong  that  from  the  very  moment  of 
entrance  the  student  should  feel  the  en¬ 
thusiasm,  the  responsibility  and  the  dignity 
of  belonging  to  a  powerful  and  honorable 
profession.’’  ( Boston  Post ,  April  5,  192.4). 

The  Evangelistic  Emphasis 

It  is  fitting  that  Boston  University  should  de¬ 
vote  its  resources  to  the  development  of  a 
national  system  of  religious  education.  Bos¬ 
ton  University  is  an  outstanding  center  in 
America  for  theistic  teaching. 


16} 


* 


+■ — — - + 

Behavioristic  psychology  and  pragmatism, 
instrumentalism,  naturalism,  and  materialism 
in  philosophy  are  profoundly  influencing  the 
academic  life  of  America  today.  The  biologi¬ 
cal  sciences  are  being  substituted  for  psy¬ 
chology,  theology  and  philosophy.  Already 
leaders  of  religious  education  are  facing  the 
problem  of  keeping  religious  education  re¬ 
ligious.  The  religious  and  philosophical  de¬ 
partments  of  Boston  University  interpret 
their  problems  from  the  viewpoint  of  per- 
sonalistic  philosophy.  This  guarantees  a 
warm  evangelistic  emphasis  and  at  the  same 
time  guarantees  all  the  values  which  flow 
from  the  most  profound  and  scholarly  re¬ 
search  in  the  field  of  religious  thought  and 
experience.  The  output  from  Boston  Univer¬ 
sity  will  be  free  from  naturalism  and  materi¬ 
alism  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  fanaticism 
and  obscurantism  on  the  other  hand.  It  is 
important  that  a  movement  that  selects  the 
curricula  and  determines  the  religious  nurture 
of  the  childhood  of  a  continent  should  have 
a  vital  religious  faith,  and  a  fundamental 
philosophy  consistent  with  the  great  con¬ 
cepts  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Jin  Jicademic  ^Adventure 

When  this  school  was  established,  eight 
years  ago,  the  faculty  and  administrative 
officers  knew  the  nature  of  the  problems 
which  they  would  be  called  upon  to  solve. 
They  were  starting  on  an  academic  adventure, 
but  they  were  not  wholly  without  guides  or 
precedents.  Medical  education,  engineering 
education,  public  education  and  other  kin¬ 
dred  vocations  had  blazed  trails  ahead  of 
them.  Educational  and  experimental  psy¬ 
chology  had  conducted  research  which 
yielded  valuable  by-products  for  religious 
education  and  social  service.  Guided  by  such 
precedents  as  were  at  hand,  the  faculty  of  this 
school  has  attacked  its  many  difficult  prob¬ 
lems.  From  the  beginning  our  faculty  was 
faced  with  such  pertinent  questions  as  the 
following: 

i.  What  are  the  general  courses  which  prepare  students  to 
participate  in  a  democratic  society?  Can  these  courses 
be  secured  at  the  College  of  Liberal  Arts,  the  School  of 


■4* 


'► - — - * 

Education,  the  School  of  Theology,  etc.,  or  must  they 
be  offered  by  a  separate  faculty? 

i.  What  are  the  courses  which  best  develop  the  spiritual 
life  of  students? 

3.  What  specialized  body  of  knowledge  belongs  to  each 
vocation  for  which  students  are  to  be  prepared? 

4.  What  technical  instruments  are  necessary  for  the  ap¬ 
plication  of  the  specialized  knowledge  of  each  vo¬ 
cation? 

5.  What  types  of  organized  and  directed  experience  will 
produce  the  skill  required  for  each  vocation  and  how 
shall  practice  be  related  to  theory? 

6.  Are  there  common  elements  which  underlie  many  re¬ 
lated  fields  of  practice?  If  so,  what  are  the  common 
elements  which  belong  to  the  vocations  represented  by 
this  school? 

7.  Granted  that  all  religious  and  social  workers  must 
have  knowledge  of  human  nature,  an  insight  into  the 
nature  of  society,  knowledge  of  the  history,  philoso¬ 
phy  and  psychology  of  religion,  and  knowledge  of  the 
Church  as  an  institution  including  its  history,  agencies 
and  materials  —  can  candidates  for  many  vocations 
secure  their  training  in  the  same  courses? 

In  developing  the  content  for  courses  of  in¬ 
struction  it  soon  became  evident  that,  for 
curriculum  purposes,  religious  education  and 
the  various  forms  of  social  service  must  be  re¬ 
garded  as  fields  of  human  endeavor  which 
draw  their  data  from  many  sciences  and  from 
many  arts. 

Instruction,  research  and  propaganda  are 
the  three  pressing  needs  of  the  rapidly  de¬ 
veloping  fields  represented  by  this  School. 
Faculty  members  are  torn  by  conflicting  de¬ 
mands.  The  content  of  their  courses  and  the 
future  of  their  profession  demands  research; 
classrooms  full  of  eager  students  tempt  them 
to  develop  the  fine  art  of  teaching,  and  the 
demands  of  the  field  for  lectures,  books,  etc., 
pull  them  out  into  promotion  and  propa¬ 
ganda.  As  the  profession  develops  there  will 
doubtless  arise  a  division  of  labor  which  will 
provide  specialists  who  restrict  their  efforts 
more  or  less  exclusively  to  a  single  type  of 
professional  work.  One  needs  only  to  glance 
at  the  catalogue  of  this  school  from  year  to 
year  to  be  convinced  that  the  members  of  the 
faculty  are  seriously  at  work  on  profound 
professional  and  academic  problems  which 
demand  research,  experimentation,  and  dis¬ 
criminating  analysis. 

♦ - - 


f 


t 


Four  Organising  Centers 

For  administrative  purposes  this  school  is 
organized  around  four  centers  as  follows: 

i .  Knowledge.  Certain  quantities  of  knowl¬ 
edge  must  be  mastered  by  the  student  who  is 
to  practice  religious  education.  This  required 
knowledge  is  definitely  set  forth  in  desig¬ 
nated  courses  which  must  be  mastered  in 
proper  sequence  and  in  proper  relation  to 
laboratory  and  practice  courses. 

z.  Health.  Successful  practice  of  any  pro¬ 
fession  demands  good  health.  Physical  ex¬ 
aminations  by  our  school  physicians  reveal 
physical  defects  which  students  are  required 
to  correct  during  their  course  of  training. 
Students  are  expected  to  learn  how  to  keep 
themselves  physically  fit  for  hard  and  exact¬ 
ing  work  when  they  go  out  to  their  fields  of 
service. 

3.  Vocational  Fitness.  This  school  main¬ 
tains  a  department  of  vocational  guidance. 
Each  student  is  given  personal  attention  by 
this  department.  Our  purpose  is  to  prevent  as 
far  as  possible  the  placing  of  “square  pegs  in 
round  holes.”  This  department  of  vocational 
guidance  works  in  conjunction  with  our 
Bureau  of  Appointments,  thus  insuring  the 
wisest  possible  placement  of  our  graduates. 

4.  Personal  and  Spiritual  Growth.  During  the 
progress  of  their  professional  courses  students 
of  this  school  are  stimulated  to  definite  and 
continuous  personal  and  spiritual  growth. 
Religious  leaders  must  have  personal  attrib¬ 
utes  worthy  of  emulation.  They  must  have 
convictions  that  lead  them  to  “die  for  the 
cause”  which  they  represent.  This  school 
consciously  strives  to  develop  the  personal 
and  spiritual  ideals  of  its  students  during  the 
progress  of  their  designated  curricula  courses. 
In  this  institution  school  spirit  comes  to  be 
identical  with  professional  spirit. 


(graduate  Professional  School 

Boston  University  School  of  Religious  Edu¬ 
cation  and  Social  Service  is  a  professional 
school  for  the  fields  of  religious  education 
and  social  service.  It  is  to  these  fields  what 
institutes  of  technology  are  to  engineering; 


+ 


4> 


<9> 


what  medical  colleges  are  to  medicine;  what 
teachers’  colleges  are  to  education,  and 
what  schools  of  theology  are  to  ministerial 
training.  It  offers  professional  degrees  based 
upon  standardized  college  courses. 

Strengthening  the  Collegiate 


Pioneers  in  the  graduate  professional  train¬ 
ing  of  leaders  in  the  field  of  religious  educa¬ 
tion  very  soon  discovered  that  high-grade 
graduate  work  in  this  field  could  not  be  done 
because  the  undergraduate  courses  had  been 
unwisely  selected.  Graduate  students  in 
chemistry,  biology,  mathematics,  history, 
sociology,  etc.,  have  pursued  basic  courses  in 
their  respective  fields  in  high  school  and 
college.  They  are  prepared  for  advanced 
graduate  courses  in  these  fields.  College  stu¬ 
dents  entering  schools  of  theology  and 
schools  of  religious  education  are  often 
very  inadequately  prepared  for  graduate 
work  in  these  fields,  and  consequently  the 
first  courses  in  the  graduate  schools  of  the¬ 
ology  and  religious  education  are  apt  to  be 
introductory  courses  of  an  undergraduate 
character  and  unworthy  of  graduate  ranking. 

To  obviate  a  similar  difficulty  medical  col¬ 
leges  reached  down  into  the  college  and  ar¬ 
ranged  a  group  of  pre-medical  courses  such  as 
biology,  bacteriology,  organic  chemistry , etc. , 
which  would  completely  satisfy  collegiate  de¬ 
mands  but  which  would  also  provide  the 
under-graduate  pre-requisites  upon  which 
real  graduate  work  could  be  predicated.  In 
like  manner  engineering  colleges  wishing  to 
strengthen  their  graduate  work  reached  down 
into  the  college  and  arranged  a  group  of  pre¬ 
engineering  courses  including  such  subjects  as 
physics,  higher  mathematics,  chemistry,  and 
geology,  which  satisfied  the  academic  de¬ 
mands  of  the  college  but  which  at  the  same 
time  provided  an  undergraduate  basis  upon 
which  real  graduate  work  could  be  done. 

Now  when  college  graduates  entered 
schools  of  religious  education  for  graduate 
work  with  majors  in  Latin,  mathematics, 
etc.,  and  without  a  single  high  school  or  col- 

«§»  ■  ■■  — ... . . .  i  ...  . > 


■> - - - - - — - — - H« 

lege  course  in  the  Bible,  ethics,  metaphysics, 
philosophy,  church  history,  history  of  re¬ 
ligion,  religious  education,  psychology,  edu¬ 
cational  theory,  sociology,  history  of  educa¬ 
tion,  etc.,  etc.,  it  was  very  clear  that  such 
students  were  not  prepared  to  do  graduate 
work  in  these  fields.  To  give  them  a  year  or 
two  of  undergraduate  work  in  a  graduate  school 
and  then  send  them  out  with  an  M.A.  degree 
in  religious  education  would  cheapen  the  pro¬ 
fession  of  religious  education  and  outrage  all 
approved  academic  ideals.  To  permit  such 
students  to  enter  standard  graduate  courses 
for  which  they  have  had  no  appropriate  in¬ 
troductory  courses,  such  as  -philosophy  of  re¬ 
ligion  without  previous  work  in  metaphysics 
or  introduction  of  philosophy;  or  psychology 
of  religion  without  preparatory  courses  in 
general  psychology;  or  Introduction  to  Johan- 
ine  Problems  without  previous  courses  in 
Biblical  History  and  Literature  —  would 
tend  to  lower  the  academic  standards  of  the 
courses  into  which  such  students  were  ad¬ 
mitted,  and  result  in  superficial  and  unsatis¬ 
factory  work  on  the  part  of  such  students. 
There  was  but  one  proper  course  to  pursue, 
namely:  to  follow  the  precedent  of  colleges  of 
medicine,  colleges  of  engineering  and  colleges 
of  other  professions  and  reach  down  into  the 
undergraduate  field  for  the  purposes  of  strengthening 
the  graduate  field.  Accordingly  the  School  of 
Religious  Education  and  Social  Service  estab¬ 
lished  its  own  undergraduate  college  in  which 
college  students  may  pursue  pre-religious 
education  courses  in  Bible,  metaphysics, 
philosophy,  ethics,  psychology,  education, 
etc.,  along  with  their  language,  history, 
science,  literature  and  the  other  disciplines  of 
the  standard  college  courses. 

After  a  very  careful  analysis  of  the  require¬ 
ments  for  baccalaureate  degrees  in  the  stand¬ 
ard  colleges  of  America,  the  faculty  of  this 
school  has  adopted  standards  for  a  baccalau¬ 
reate  which  fully  meet  the  academic  and 
cultural  requirements  of  the  historic  Bachelor 
of  Arts  degree  and  at  the  same  time  provide 
that  insight  into  the  fields  of  religion  and 
social  science  which  will  be  required  of  those 
who  are  to  be  leaders  in  the  church  work  of 
the  future.  Just  as  the  Bachelor  of  Science  de- 


gree  provides  the  essential  liberal  cultural 
courses  with  a  group  of  rich  courses  in  physi¬ 
cal  and  biological  sciences,  so  the  Bachelor  of 
Religious  Education  and  the  Bachelor  of 
Social  Science  degrees  provide  all  the  essen¬ 
tials  of  the  historic  baccalaureate  plus  an  in¬ 
troduction  to  the  fields  of  religion  and  social 
science  which  will  furnish  rich  background 
for  graduate  work  in  these  fields.  This  school 
feels  justified  in  maintaining  its  high  and 
exacting  requirements  for  its  baccalaureate 
degrees  because  all  of  its  students  are  prepar¬ 
ing  for  some  form  of  Christian  or  social  ser¬ 
vice  in  which  they  will  be  the  leaders  and 
spiritual  guides  of  men  and  women  in  all  of 
the  other  vocations  and  professions.  A  fur¬ 
ther  analysis  of  the  baccalaureate  degrees  of¬ 
fered  by  this  school  may  be  found  on  pages 
43-45,  of  its  current  catalogue. 

Persons  who  are  looking  forward  to  pro¬ 
fessional  work  in  the  fields  of  religion  or 
social  service  should  be  guided  into  a  selec¬ 
tion  of  those  courses  in  the  undergraduate 
years  which  will  give  a  wide  range  of  dis¬ 
cipline  and  provide  a  background  for  future 
graduate  work  in  their  chosen  fields  of  service. 

The  graduate  degrees  of  this  school  are 
professional  degrees;  its  baccalaureate  degrees 
are  cultural  degrees. 

T^apid  (growth  of  School 

The  phenomenal  growth  in  the  student  body 
of  this  school  has  justified  its  faculty  in  the 
creation  and  maintenance  of  high  academic 
standards  and  rigid  professional  require¬ 
ments.  The  progressive  student  wishes  to  go 
to  the  top  of  his  profession.  He  is  not  satis¬ 
fied  with  short  courses.  This  augurs  well  for 
the  future  of  this  new  profession.  The  follow¬ 
ing  record  of  the  growth  in  the  enrolment  of 
this  school  tells  its  own  story. 


1918- 19 . 105 

1919- 10 . 2.08 

1910- 2.1 . 310 

1911- 11 . 311 

192.1-2.3 . 369 

192-3-M . 42-5 

192-4-2-5 . 474 

1915-16 . 504 


{  11  > 


+ 


The  present  student  body  comes  from  38 
states  and  8  foreign  countries  and  represents 
22  Protestant  Christian  denominations. 

This  is  a  Christian  School  with  an  inter¬ 
denominational  spirit  and  program. 

Tart  of  a  (freat  Metropolitan 
University 

This  school  is  an  integral  part  of  a  great 
metropolitan  university  with  more  than 
10,000  students  annually  and  more  than  500 
members  in  its  various  faculties.  This  school 
is  one  of  nine  schools  constituting  Boston 
University.  It  has  its  own  faculty,  buildings, 
student  body,  and  it  is  related  to  the  Uni¬ 
versity  just  as  the  College  of  Liberal  Arts, 
the  School  of  Medicine,  the  School  of  Law, 
the  School  of  Theology  and  the  other  schools 
and  colleges  comprising  the  University. 

This  school  is  devoting  its  efforts  to  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  religious  education  as  a  profession.  It  be¬ 
lieves  that  the  requirements  for  this  profession 
should  be  as  high  or  higher  than  those  of  any  other 
profession.  To  this  end  it  has  (1)  strengthened 
and  enriched  the  undergraduate  requirements ,  and 
(2)  developed  long ,  exacting  graduate  courses  with 
clinic  and  laboratory  facilities  leading  to  degrees 
which  are  distinctive  of  the  field  of  religious  educa¬ 
tion  and  equal  in  content  and  requirements  to  other 
standardised  professional  degrees. 

In  order  that  it  may  more  fully  realize  its 
ideals  it  is  seeking  to  increase  its  endowment 
and  strengthen  its  material  equipment.  Eight 
years  of  successful  work  have  demonstrated 
the  practicability  of  its  program  and  stand¬ 
ards.  Its  resources  should  be  greatly  strength¬ 
ened  by  friends  of  religious  education  who 
share  the  ideals  set  forth  in  this  brochure. 

For  complete  catalogue,  or  other  informa¬ 
tion  regarding  this  school  address 

Dean  Walter  S.  Athearn 

Boston  University  School  of  Religious 
Education  and  Social  Service 

2.0  Beacon  Street 
Boston,  Mass. 


4- 


4 


<i3> 


+ - 


The  Battle  (ground  of  the  hSjjxt 
Decade 

“In  the  early  history  of  our  American  school 
system,  we  borrowed  much  of  our  educational 
machinery  and  method  from  Europe;  in  re¬ 
cent  years  we  have  been  importing  European 
and  Oriental  philosophies  of  education.  There 
is  great  danger  that  we  shall  build  the  edu¬ 
cational  program  of  our  new  democracy  upon 
a  philosophy  which  will  in  the  end  accom¬ 
plish  the  undoing  of  democracy.  There  is  ur¬ 
gent  need  for  the  restudy  of  the  philosophy  of 
democracy,  the  philosophy  of  religion,  and 
especially  the  philosophy  of  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion,  and  for  the  building  of  an  educational 
philosophy  which  will  fittingly  express  the 
ideals  of  a  democratic  and  spiritually  minded 
people.  I  am  convinced  that  the  battle  ground 
in  the  field  of  religious  education  for  the  next 
decade  will  not  be  in  the  field  of  organization 
and  methodology,  but  in  the  field  of  educa¬ 
tional  theory.”  —  From  A  National  System  of 
Education,  by  Walter  S.  Athearn. 


•fr  .... ,  .  -  . 


■i*  ~  —  . . -  ■■■■■■■■■  .  i 


BOSTON  UNIVERSITY 

Legal  title:  the  Trustees  of  Boston  University 


DANIEL  L.  MARSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
President  of  the  University 
688  Boylston  Street 
Boston 


The  Officers  of  the  Corporation 

John  L.  Bates,  President 
George  A.  Dunn,  Vice-President 
E.  Ray  Speare,  Treasurer 
Frank  W.  Kimball,  Secretary 


